Asthma rates in children declining - study

29/12/2015

(File)

Asthma rates in children declining - study

A new study has revealed asthma rates in children are beginning to drop.

Despite the rate of asthma among children steadily increasing for several years, it’s now plateaued and has begun to decrease over the past two years, according to researchers at the US National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

There has been a 20-year increase that is just starting to level out among most children, though not those who are poor and aged between 10 and 17.

The researchers said poorer children are exposed to environmental factors such as tobacco, mould, mildew, dust, cockroaches and smog more often than children in better socio-economic conditions.

Additionally, the stress of poverty may have an effect on asthma risk, researchers said.

While researchers said they're not entirely sure why overall rates have levelled, they're also not entirely sure why rates among impoverished children have not levelled off

They do note, however, many of the environmental factors that can influence asthma development may not be fading for poor children the way they are for others.

Since childhood asthma rates doubled between 1980 and 1995, the researchers also noted rates were bound to stabilise or start rolling back at some point, even as increases have been slowing since 2001, according to the NCHS report.